Tom Orsborn: Utah’s Williams misses practice

Williams is listed as probable for Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals, set for 8 p.m. Monday. The Spurs hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Williams, who scored a game-high 31 points in the Jazz’s 109-83 victory over the Spurs on Saturday night,

informed team trainers of the illness after he arrived at the club’s training facility for practice.

“He was feeling sick, so they gave him something for it and sent him home,” the spokesperson said. “He should be OK, but the thinking was, ‘Why push it?’ ”

The Spurs held a four-point lead at halftime of Game 3, but Williams scored nine points and dished out three assists in the third period to help the Jazz outscore the Spurs 32-20 for a 75-67 lead entering the fourth.

Williams added nine more points in the final 12 minutes as Utah outscored the Spurs 66-36 in the second half. The 26-point loss was the Spurs’ worst of the season.

“He’s played some great basketball for us,” Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said of Williams, whose Game 3 performance also included a game-high eight assists, a game-high five steals, one block and only two turnovers in nearly 38 minutes.

• Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko showed off his soccer skills during practice when he headed the ball into the hoop after bouncing it off his forehead several times.

• In his Sunday column, Kurt Kragthorpe of the Salt Lake Tribune described Popovich’s post-game news conference Saturday night as “horribly condescending.” Wrote Kragthorpe after listening to Popovich, “It was a horribly condescending performance, even by the standards of Popovich, the Air Force Academy graduate who’s never inclined to reveal much in the way of military intelligence. Actually, his level of disdain was quite entertaining in its own way, whether that was intentional or not.”

• Jazz assistant coach Tyrone Corbin said he has fond memories of his 47-game stint with the Spurs from 1985-1987. Corbin, a former DePaul standout, was a second-round pick (35th overall) by the Spurs in 1985.

“I have great memories because I was a rookie and got to play with George Gervin,” Corbin said. “I also had a great coach in Cotton Fitzsimmons, who did a great job of teaching me the difference between the college and pro game.”

Corbin said he was a big fan of Gervin’s long before joining the Spurs.

“George had a great personality,” Corbin said. “He was a tremendous talent. He was old at the time, but he really knew and understood how to get to the spot on the court he wanted to get to. The fastest guy isn’t always the most effective guy. Knowledge of the game and technique and being fundamentally sound and knowing your craft is also very important.”

The Spurs waived Corbin in January 1987. The 6-foot-6 forward averaged 7.2 points for San Antonio, which let him go shortly after it acquired high-scoring forward Walter “The Truth” Berry in a trade with Portland.